Stephen Williams

Stephen Williams (1694–1782) was a boy captive of Deerfield and 1st Congregational minister of Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Early years Stephen Williams was the second son born on May 14, 1694, to the Reverend John Williams of Deerfield, Massachusetts. and Eunice Mather Williams, daughter of the Rev. Eleazar Mather of Northampton, Massachusetts. At the age of nine, he was abducted from his home in Deerfield by a raiding party composed roughly of 40 French soldiers, and about 200 Abenaki, Huron and Mohawk Indians, working with the French in Montreal. The raid took place in the early morning hours of February 29, 1704, surprising the inhabitants of the frontier town. Two of Stephen’s siblings were killed along with his mother Eunice, who had just given birth and whose “strength of body began to fail her” after falling into the waters of the Green River. Approximately 112 survivors of the Deerfield attack were marched 300 miles along the frozen banks of the Connecticut River into Canada, where Stephen was held by his captors briefly at Fort Chambly (Lake Champlain region), and later marched to Cowass, (now Newbury, Vt.). His captor, a sagamore, named George, took Stephen as a servant and “set to various tasks of cutting wood and packing skins and other supplies.” Following the hunting season, the band returned to Canada, where Stephen was briefly reunited with his father, who had obtained a temporary release through Governor de Vaudreuil, along with Stephen’s sister Esther and eldest brother Samuel. However, this was short-lived as Stephen was again held captive at Fort St. Francois (east of Montreal, Canada) where “he suffered much among the Indians”, and whipped by Jesuits attempting to convert him to Catholicism. In August 1705, Governor Joseph Dudley of Boston arranged a prisoner exchange for Williams and a few others. He sailed to Boston and arrived on November 21, 1705, where he lived with an uncle in Roxbury until his father and brothers were released in the fall of 1706. Education Williams was educated in the typical manner of children in Deerfield. His father, Rev. John Williams, also taught Stephen to read the Bible and the books contained in his library. Following his release from captivity, Williams resumed his formal education, and in 1709, was admitted as an undergraduate to Harvard College at the age of sixteen.